Brick Barn

Dioramas R Us

Some guests love to create. Others love to build sets. Some like to grab something cool and play with it. Another category is Lego dioramas. For example, our guest saw the Rogue One Tie Striker model another guest had build recently and said, “I’m going to recreate the battle of Scarif!” So we worked together to find the right characters for the scene as well as the structural supports needed to position the surprisingly heavy TIE Striker above the action. The clear technic beams help provide the illusion of flight. Simple design but effective. (click on the pictures for a larger version)

There was also the meeting of Obi-wan and Jabba the Hut:

That’s a lot of bounty hunters.

Another guest took a long look at our suspended Star Destroyer and asked if he could build a couple more CR90 Corvette blockade runners. I pulled out the manual and he set to work finding the necessary elements. The result is a rag-tag band of ships suitable for a rebel alliance on a shoestring string budget!

A close up of the various spare parts the rebels used to retrofit the ship.

Just because there are now 4 of them doesn’t mean that the Star Destroyer is outnumbered.

Also along the Star Wars theme, we got a surprise visit from the First Order! Now I was not as concerned as I would have been should Darth Vader show up, but it did require a significant amount of customer service tact to keep the young Kylo Ren satisfied. We all know the temper he has!

Thankfully we passed inspection and are still open for business!

From swashbuckling with Lightsabers to swashbuckling with, well, regular sabers, we also had an expansion on our pirate’s realm as they ply the dangerous waters of Table Bay. The French gunship was joined by an English frigate to patrol for the pirates harassing the islanders on Volcano Island:

The English even came with their own fortress:

Which was filled with booty from various pirate encounters!

And yet with all that gun powder sailing about the bay, the slippery pirates still got onto the island with their own ship equip with deadly… um… catapults.

We’ve gots the island now… yar!

A bit more of a tub than a ship.

Loads of Lego sets were built as well. Minecraft, as expected, has been very popular! Several sets built and separated and built again. Minecraft is still free to build all this month!

We also had some more conventional creativity from the Massive Pile. Two cool multi-colored homes were constructed.

Beds, skateboards and a pony! Perfect… even some stairs going up to a second floor.

Good thing someone taught those horses to read! Those signs will keep them in the barn. Also a creative use of a castle wall element – it’s the girls’ TV!

And Now For Something Completely Different (which is on Netflix by the way – Monty Python fans rejoice). As my funding is coming to an end in June, I have decided to start implementing changes to the Brick Barn in order to allow myself to be employed full time elsewhere. Critically, there will be new hours starting in May-ish depending on when said job materializes. Hopefully, it won’t be too disruptive, as I do plan on continuing hours on the weekends and possibly some week nights depending on scheduling. But there will be more details on this as my hunt for a suitable job progresses. With that being said:

It is super important I thank the managers at SkillsPEI for their willingness to support my project. Without their confidence in my crazy idea, Brick Barn would never have happened and I would never have had this wonderful opportunity to establish a small business, integrate with my community and meet so many wonderful people. Without their funding (from all you wonderful taxpayers out there!), I would not have had the resources to discover what a Creative Play Place could become! It has been an awesome 9 months being open full time, and I believe there will be many, many more great years to come… just in a more limited capacity (or until I don’t have debts to pay down). Thank you to all my regulars, and irregulars too, for joining me and imparting your creativity onto my Lego collection!

April should progress normally with my current business hours in effect so I hope I will see you all again soon!